Website selects 2001-02 team among the most reviled

The 2001-02 Maple Leafs - yes, those Darcy Tucker-Shayne Corson-Tie Domi Leafs - are the 22nd "most hated sports team of all time" according to SI.com.

The website released its top 25 most reviled list, with the Jimmy Johnson-led University of Miami Hurricanes ranking No. 1.

Philadelphia's Broad Street Bullies - the 1974-75 Flyers - checked in at No. 4, which is understandable. But the 2001-02 Leafs? Who even remembers them?

"Indeed, one reason the Leafs were despised - beyond coach Pat Quinn's haranguing of the refs, a diver like Tucker, a stick man like Corson and an unabashed brawler like Domi - was that they were viewed as something of a pet," wrote SI's Michael Farber. "Additionally, the league's hockey operations department was located in the office building attached to the Air Canada Centre, which led to the theory that Toronto received preferential treatment."

There are now two ex-Leafs on the Ottawa coaching staff in Luke Richardson and goaltending coach Rick Walmsley, who was hired Wednesday ... The NHL missed an opportunity for some free publicity on the popular TV series Mad Men, when show producers were unable to secure the rights to use a tiny portion of a hockey broadcast of a game between the Leafs and New York Rangers from Saturday, Nov. 28, 1964. The detail-crazy Mad Men folks used a football broadcast instead for the scene which was to have taken place on that same Saturday, Nov. 28 date. Of course, they didn't play Saturday night NFL games in 1964 ... Scratch Columbus as a possible destination for Leafs defenceman Tomas Kaberle, after the Blue Jackets avoided salary arbitration with defenceman Anton Stralman hours before Wednesday's hearing.